9's made to 380 brass

[gunoil]

took 9 brass mashed it thru makarov buldge buster kit, then thru 38 special die, then 380 die, then trimed to length. Looks like it might work. Not out any money to speak of. I have 7 i will try will lead 380 HP's. Oh well!

[2ndAmendmentNut]

I would be very interested in knowing how this works out. I would imagine a 9mm has a pretty thick wall near the base compared to the 380, but as long as standard load development is followed I don't see how it could be dangers. What sort of 380 will you be shooting these in?

[Multigunner]

After seeing images of how much the chamber of one of the modern .380 pistols had been undercut at the feed ramp (1/3 of the case body visible) I checked my FN1922 chamber and found there was no under cut and the case head past the extractor groove was fully supported.

Some like to make .45 ACP cases from .308 cases in order to have a more robust casehead for higher pressure loads.
Converting 9mm cases to .380 might serve to avoid case blow outs in one of those pistols that has poor or no casehead support.
If the head and brass is thicker this will restrict powder space, so loads should be worked up with reduced capacity in mind.

PS
Main reason i got my FN so cheap was a previous owner read 9mm Kurtz stamped on the barrel lump and thought there was something wrong when he couldn't chamber 9X19 ammo or get one in the magazine.

[deltaenterprizes]

I think 223 brass with split necks would make some nice 380 brass, buy the necks would most probably need to be reamed.

[turbo1889]

I've had several cheap 380 guns that had very sloppy loose chambers that I only had to squeeze the head down just a little bit (38-super die 0.384" base diameter used as a push through) and trim to length on 9x19 brass to make it fit the chamber. Worked like a charm and made those guns shoot a whole lot more accurately then they did with 380 brass.

With a 380 that had a properly cut chamber that would take a lot of sizing down I would think about twice as much size down as I was doing. Kind of surprised you didn't loose the extractor groove in the process since that is one problem that I ran into but I still had enough extractor groove to make it work but again I was only sizing down half as much as you are.

[gunoil]

Iam learning from u guys. Gonna try above. Plus its fun.

Iam gonna try 223 brass for 380's... I made brass from 9's but could not expand it proper,, To thick walled!

Gonna work on 223 tonite. Just fun to do this stuff.

[gunoil]

No 223 brass to thick walled too.

[turbo1889]

Is 38 super die more close to 380 than 38sp die? Or run 223 thru my 38sp die then 380 ? I gave up on 9brass, to thick.

(Sent via. PM but since nothing of private nature in message responding in main thread here for everyone to see.)


The "base diameter" of 380-ACP = 0.374"

The "base diameter" of 38-spl. = 0.379"
The "base diameter" of 38-super = 0.384"
The "base diameter" of 9x19 = 0.391"


So which one to use (38-spl. or 38-super) to squeeze down 9x19 brass to fit an oversize/loose 380-ACP chamber depends on how oversize/loose your chamber is. For my gun the 38-super carbide die I had was the best choice. YMMV.

As to the brass being too thick, once again that depends on the specific 9x19 brass used, how oversize your 380-ACP chamber is and what size of boolit diameter you need to use to work with your barrel. My gun had a tight 0.356" groove-diameter barrel with an over-size loose chamber and it worked out great with the 9x19 brass I used for everything to fit. YMMV.

I also have successfully made 380-ACP cases from worn out 7.62x25 cases with split necks, but once again. YMMV.

I have not tried making them from 223 cases, and my experiments with trying to make 7.62x25 cases from 223 cases didn't go very well (although a conversion successfully done by others) so I don't think it would be high on my list of things to try making 380-ACP cases from them. Anymore any split-neck 223 cases I have go to my GF who has several wildcat guns that use cut down and necked versions of that case (mainly her 8mm-carbine and two different lengths of 357-cal. wildcats but she also has a 338-cal wildcat as well all of which are made from shortened versions of the 223 cases). Come to think of it I know she has to inside ream the cases for her 357-cal. wildcats that use that brass so that for sure 223 would probably be a case with too thick of walls without inside reaming for the 380-ACP once you shorten it down unless your chamber is really, really loose.